The present invention relates to a method for sealing a high pressure steamer for the use of continuous wet heat treatment of a long cloth produced commercially and a device therefor.
For the purpose of steaming a commercial long cloth continuously in subjecting the cloth to such treatments as pretreatment, weight reducing and dyeing, various kinds of high pressure steamers, in which seal mechanisms are provided at the cloth inlet and outlet thereof for allowing the taking in and out of a cloth to be treated continuously while maintaining the wet heat in the steamer body constant, have been proposed, particularly by the present applicant. The seal mechanisms in such already developed high pressure steamers are to provide a pair of seal rubber rolls pressed with each other respectively at the cloth inlet and the cloth outlet of the steamer body for sealing the steam in the steamer body while allowing the pass of the cloth continuously therethrough.
However, the seal rubber rolls in such a seal mechanism are exposed to the action of high temperature and pressure steam in the steamer body to elevate the surface temperature thereof, and consequently there occur such troubles that the rubber layer at the surface of the seal rubber roll is weakened or denatured to reduce the sealing effect and that the seal rubber roll is deformed due to expansion. Smooth taking in and out of the cloth becomes difficult, and finally the operation of the seal rubber rolls becomes impossible.
Although there have been many proposals for the improvement of the seal mechanism to dissolve such drawbacks, it is quite difficult to maintain the temperature of the seal rubber rolls as low as the ordinary temperature (about 20.degree. C.) during operation. Since the temperature of the interior of the steamer body is usually as high as from 150.degree. to 160.degree. C., it is the present status that the temperature of the seal rubber rolls in the seal mechanism of a high pressure steamer is unavoidably about 50.degree. C. at the lowest.